PREFACE
The following pages have been written after a careful study of the Official records and other Civil War library books to which I have had access over a period of years, and not upon the recollection of personal experience, as I did not belong to the generation which fought the great Civil War. It has been my desire to make all statements as accurate as possible, and sincerely believe that any and all statements contained in this volume can be verified by the Official Records. I wish to express my thanks to the War Department, under whose authority the Official Records were published. I also wish to express my thanks to the late Hon. Charles W. Lusk of Chattanooga, Tennessee, for his valuable suggestions.
Entrance to Point Park. Lookout Mountain
Riderless Horse—Chickamauga Battlefield
CHICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA NATIONAL MILITARY PARK
(Georgia and Tennessee)
By an act of Congress, approved August 19, 1890, the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park was established, with a view to preserving and suitably marking those battlefields for historical and professional military study. The part undertaken by the Government in the establishment of this park embraced the purchase of lands, restoration of the fields, construction of roads and trails, building of observation towers, the erection of appropriate monuments to the regular troops engaged there, the preparation of hundreds of historical tablets for the various organizations of the contending armies, the mounting of original guns in their exact positions during the battles and the erection of shell pyramids, both of square-base and triangular-base type.
The park was created as a result of the reunion of the Army of the Cumberland which was held in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on September 19-20, 1889. At this reunion, the Chickamauga Memorial Association was formed. Gen. John T. Wilder was elected president and Gen. Joseph Wheeler vice-president. Then a Board of Directors, numbering 28, were elected. Of this number, an equal division was made of ex-Union and ex-Confederate officers.
Since that time the various states having troops in the battles have erected hundreds of beautiful, expensive monuments and markers which show the exact regimental positions of their troops. The tablets mark the brigade and division positions and give a brief history of their activities. The blue tablets mark the Union positions, while the red tablets mark Confederate positions. Another interesting thing to know is that all of these tablets have been placed in such a manner that when you are facing them, you are facing the same direction which the troops were facing at that time and place. Therefore, if anyone cares to follow up the movements of any particular organization, it can be done very easily.
Every effort has been made to restore the battlefields to their original condition. Speaking of the shell pyramids, there are 14 of the square-base type which mark the headquarters sites of either an army corps or the field headquarters of the commanding general. There are 8 of the triangular-base pyramids which mark the exact spot where each of the brigade commanders lost their lives. All of these are located on the Chickamauga battlefield. On Missionary Ridge, a bronze cannon-ball monument has been substituted for a pyramid. This also marks the site where a brigade commander lost his life. One original house stands on the Chickamauga battlefield; also three replicas of the original.
This is the largest and oldest of the National Military Parks. It is probably the first one on which the high-ranking officers of the contending armies ever met to determine their exact locations during the battles. The park consists of approximately 8,584 acres, and embraces the battlefields of Chickamauga, Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, all of which were very important in military operations around Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the fall of 1863. The Chickamauga battlefield alone covers 5,562 acres.